1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a system for handling fluids including air, fuel vapor, blow-by gas, and oil within the crankcase of an internal combustion engine.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Automotive internal combustion engines typically utilize an oil pan for the purpose of closing the bottom end of the engine's cylinder block. Because a quantity of oil is required to lubricate the engine while keeping the oil at a reasonable temperature, it is usually necessary to provide the oil pan with a built-in reservoir. This has a drawback inasmuch as such a reservoir limits the ability of the engine to be mounted low within a vehicle, thereby increasing the package height of the engine undesirably, particularly with newer vehicles having lowered hood lines. Although it is possible and known to provide an engine with a dry sump system, and although this is commonly done with racing engines, known dry sump systems are prohibitively expensive for production vehicles because they require multi-stage pumps which must be driven by the engine's crankshaft merely for the purpose of picking up oil from the oil pan and providing it to a surge tank.
A system according to the present invention solves the problem of reducing engine package height by providing a compact fluid collector pan, while allowing the engine's oil reservoir to be mounted elsewhere in the vehicle and while further allowing superior separation of blow-by and oil from the engine's crankcase gases.
Another advantage resulting from the present invention is that at high speeds, engine performance is degraded by the presence of oil vapor about the crankshaft, i.e., so-called windage. The phenomenon of windage occurs when the engine's crankshaft spins at very high speeds, say in excess of 5000 rpm; this may cause oil within the crankcase and oil pan to be whipped into a froth which physically impedes passage of the spinning crankshaft, thereby reducing the engine's power output. A system according to the present invention prevents this situation by evacuating oil and all other fluids from the engine crankcase, thereby allowing the crankshaft to turn substantially unimpeded by windage no matter what the engine speed.